My parents have always made their own spaghetti sauce. My Mom has her own version and my Dad has his own version. Don’t worry, it’s not a family war, it’s a known fact that my Dad’s version is better. My mom will admit this.

For many years, I too had my own recipe… which was going to the store and buying a jar of sauce. Having my Dad’s sauce was a treat, but in the last few years I’ve realized how easy and not so time consuming it is to make your own sauce… and how it tastes 100% better. So, I’m here to spill the secret recipe.

I like to make a big batch of this and freeze any leftovers I have.

My Dad’s Simple Spaghetti Sauce

Ingredients
2 tablespoons of olive oil
5 cloves of garlic, minced (or more!)
2 28oz cans of diced tomatoes (organic, plz)
1 15oz can of tomato sauce
2 teaspoons of granulated sugar
1-2 pours of good red wine (A few tablespoons each pour)
2 teaspoons of oregano
2 teaspoons of Italian seasoning
Fresh basil if available
salt and pepper to tasteDIRECTIONS
1. Add the olive oil to a large saucepan. When it starts to shimmer add the garlic. Cook for a minute or two so that the garlic turns a golden color. Stop before it turns brown!
2. Add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, red wine, 1 tablespoon sugar and spices. Let this simmer on medium-low for 20 minutes. (NOTE: if you want a thicker sauce, drain the tomatoes and keep the juice for when you make soup or bloody mary mix).
3. Stir the pot often, but try not to let the water that will collect on the lid get into the sauce!
4. After 20 minutes, taste the sauce and see what else it needs. More spices and wine never hurt (I think I need an apron that says that..) if it tastes too acidic add more sugar. Add in fresh basil if you have it here.
5. Cook for 20 more minutes at a tad lower heat, stirring frequently.
6. Use an immersion blender to smooth out the chunks to the consistency you want your sauce to be. I tend to like a balance between smooth and chunky so I do about 15-25 seconds of blending. The blending will break up the basil as well.
7. The sauce is ready to eat, or feel free to continue simmering. The longer it cooks down, the better it tastes.

See? Not hard. You have to chop some garlic, open some cans, shake in some spices and things and stir a few times! This sauce is even better (200%?) if you have tomatoes that you canned your self. You can even use fresh tomatoes that you roast or fresh tomatoes that you chop.

It’s blueberry season and I have been eyeing a blueberry crumb cake recipe from Smitten Kitchen for a few weeks. I have bought blueberries at the farmers market or store every week, but never bit the bullet and made the cake. (Or, Brent ate them all, but I’m not here to play the blame game!)

I walked into my pal Sarah’s (I think she is my #2 biggest fan?) baby shower, and there was the cake sitting on the counter! I started squawking and asking our gracious host: “TERESA! IS THAT THE SMITTEN KITCHEN BLUEBERRY CRUMB CAKE?!” Yes. It was. I ate it and it was so tasty I knew I’d be making it later that day to share with all of my pals at work.

2. Butter a 9-inch round baking pan (with at least 2″ sides) and dust it lightly with flour; line it with a round of parchment paper just on the bottom of the pan. (As a note, my pan was 9″ but only had a 1.5″ side, so I made Brent his own tiny cake. This worked fine, but the end result would look nicer if you used a pan with at least a 2″ side.)

3. Make the topping by mixing the flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt, then cutting the butter in with a pastry blender, fork or your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside. Note, this is going to seem too wet for a crumble topping. If you want add another teaspoon of flour, but if you don’t it turns out just as fine.

4. In a medium bowl, mix your dry ingredients: whisk flour, baking powder, and salt until combined. *Flour note: I used a 50/50 mix of all purpose flour and whole wheat flour the second time I made this and I prefer this method. Try it!

5. In a large bowl (or stand mixer), beat butter, sugar and zest of the lemon together until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat until combined.

6. Beat in 1/3 of the dry ingredient mixture until just combined, followed by 1/2 the milk; repeat with remaining dry ingredients and milk, finishing with the dry mixture. The batter will be very stiff, and that’s ok!

8. Scoop cake batter into prepared pan and smooth so that it is flat. Add the topping. Bake in heated oven for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out batter-free.

9. You can let the cake cool completely in the pan on a rack (I’d recommend this as I didn’t do it, or just cool it in the pan for 20 minutes before flipping it out onto a cooling rack, removing the parchment paper lining, and flipping it back onto a plate.

10. Be extra fancy and dust with confectioners’ sugar. I just used a fine mesh strainer and about 2 teaspoons of confectioners’ sugar and shook it on top. It made it look like I was an expert baker or that I bought it at a fancy bakery.

I gave my co-workers a reason to eat cake in the morning, and they liked it so I think this will be something I make again soon. Maybe my next excuse will be when Sarah has that baby in a few weeks. At least I won’t be the one sqwaking!

Our two pals (Justen & Megan, nosy) are marrying each other next weekend and we have been celebrating! Most recently at Megan’s bachelorette party, held at a beautiful Minnesota winery.

Meg sometimes gets hangry and loves Cheez-Its (who doesn’t….) so I thought a nice part of her gift would be a homemade version that might soak up the wine the next day.

This recipe was harder than driving to the store and opening up a box of crackers, but barely. It has only a few ingredients and tastes fantastic. These are not a health food, but a fun gift or snack for a party.

3. Add cheese, butter, salt, and pepper to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or add to a food processor. Mix on low speed until the mixture comes together and starts to stick to the sides of the bowl, about 30 seconds.

4. Add the flour and cornstarch, beating until incorporated – the mixture should look like coarse sand.

5. Mix in 2 tablespoons of water. (If the dough seems too dry, you can add up to 1 tablespoon of additional water to bring it together.)

6. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and shape into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

7. On a lightly floured work surface, roll the dough into a rectangle with a rolling pin to about 1/16-inch thick. Using a pizza cutter or knife, cut the dough into 1-inch wide strips, then cut 1-inch squares from those strips. (If you have fancy-edged-pastry cutter, use it! Also, the size of the cracker doesn’t have to be perfect.)

8. Transfer the squares to the prepared baking sheets – pack them in pretty tightly, they don’t spread very much!

9. Using the flat end of a wooden skewer (or something similar), poke a hole in the center of each dough square.

10. Bake the crackers until the edges just begin to turn gold brown, which takes about 15-20 minutes. (Check them and turn the pan in the oven after ten minutes, then check again at 15 minutes, then every few minutes after until they are done.

11. Let the crackers cool on the baking sheet.

Pack them up in a mason jar, tie a bow around it and give it to your favorite bachelorette of the month. Or yourself. Or anyone else. Everyone will be jumping for joy.

One weekend Brent sent me an email with the subject line: “To Try.” The only thing in the body of the email was a link to Alton Brown’s soft pretzel recipe.

Clearly, I tried the recipe and it was delicious and pretty easy. And a reason for you to use the 90 pound stand mixer you likely got for your wedding, or got yourself as a gift for going to so many weddings.

DIRECTIONS
1. In your barely used stand mixer, combine the 1.5 cups warm water, sugar and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam. (If you decide to use instant yeast like I did, you can skip the 5 minute wait time)

2. Add the flour and butter and, using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4 to 5 minutes.

3. Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and then oil it well with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place for approximately 50 to 55 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.

4. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line 2 half-sheet pans with parchment paper and spray with some vegetable oil spray (like Pam). Set aside.

5. In the meantime, turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll out each piece of dough into a 24-inch rope.

8. Get a large pot and bring 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil.

9. Place the pretzels into the boiling water, 1 by 1, one at a time, for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a large flat spatula. I let these dry on a cookie rack before returning them.

10. Once you have the pretzels on the parchment paper-lined pans, brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with the kosher salt (unless you have pretzel salt!).

11. Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 12 to 14 minutes. I like to rotate the pan half way through cooking. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.

Not so hard and very delicious. I recently went to lunch with some co-workers and we ordered one pretzel for the table. It was not as tasty and it was $6. BOO!

So maybe you should e-mail this to your self with the subject line “to try” and make this for seven of your favorite co-workers.

I failed to post in 2014. I cooked and baked a lot of things, but I didn’t always get (or remember to get) great pictures. I resolve to do better in 2015 and what better way to prove it than a recipe for homemade granola! Right? Right.

Brent is on a yogurt kick and did not like the fancy, organic, $10 million dollar granola I got him so I decided to make my own.

This was my first time making granola, so I’m the worst hippie ever. I decided to go with a very slightly adapted America’s Test Kitchen recipe because they obsessively test recipes and I trust them. Bonus: this was a no stir recipe. Not a bonus: they don’t publish their recipes without a subscription so I watched a video of the recipe 10 times. Pro tip: write the recipe down as you hear it on the video, like so:

4. Add oats and chopped nuts to the oil/sugar/etc. mixture and stir well to coat.

5. Line a large pan with parchment paper, dump the granola out.

6. Using a spoon or a potato masher, smash down the granola on the pan as much as possible. This will help to create big chunks!

7. Bake at 325 for 40 minutes (it can go to 45 minutes depending on your oven). Rotate the pan once at the 20 minute mark. Take the granola out when it looks brown around the edges and on the top, not too brown!

8. Let the granola cool for an hour on the pan. Then, break it into whatever size chunks you want.

This stuff was tasty. And inexpensive to make. You can use whatever nuts you like and the original recipe also called for adding in raisins or other dried fruit after the granola cooled. Brent is a raisin hater, so I respected his hatred and left this plain. I did try a tiny bowl with some raisins, and it was delicious.

I saw a recipe on Pinterest that was described as a cross between monkey bread and cinnamon roll. The sound of it reminded me of my favorite Great Harvest bread Cinnamon Chip. I knew I would have to make it ASAP.

I tried to make this for/with my pals the other day but failed to read through the entire recipe to note that the dough required an two periods of resting time totaling about 1.5 hours. (Bolding that, in case you are like me!) Oops. So, make this recipe a day ahead, or start it early if you are a really nice early bird and want to make a delicious breakfast treat. Maybe just don’t make it when you invite people over who are really hungry!

This recipe IS super easy, but the way it was written, it looks elaborate. I’m going to break it down step by step.

Step One Directions:
1. Proof the yeast in 1/4 cup of warm water, if you are using dry active yeast.
2. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer.
3. Add the warmed milk, vegetable oil and proofed (or instant, which I love) yeast.
4. Knead with the dough hook until dough is smooth, adding more flour by the Tbsp. as necessary. I did not have to use any more flour.
5. Remove dough to an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise to doubled, about 60 minutes.

Step three directions:
1. Pour the brown sugar/cinnamon mixture evenly alongside the buttered ropes and then roll the ropes in the mixture until evenly covered.
2. Pinch the end of the ropes together and then twist them together, pinching the other end once all twisted together.
3. Place twisted ropes into the skillet, starting from the centre and winding it around. (If you have some melted butter left over from brushing, feel free to drizzle it over the dough).
4. Cover the skillet with greased plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, it takes anywhere from 30-45 minutes.

Step four directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Prepare the streusel topping by combining dry ingredients and cutting in the cold butter with a fork. Set aside.
3. Once dough is doubled, sprinkle with streusel topping and bake for for 40-45 minutes, covering it with foil after 25 or 30 minutes if is dark enough.

Step five directions:
1. Add the milk to the powdered sugar. Stir well until smooth.
2. Add in the melted butter, vanilla and a tiny pinch of salt.
3. Pour evenly over bread once it has cooled a bit. Truth be told, I only used HALF of the icing, and then took half in a bowl for everyone to spoon over their bread.

STEP 6: Look at how fancy the recipe you just made is! Eat!

I took this to a football (watching) party. NOT your typical football snack, but why not. These photos are a little blurry as I was running out the door. Sorry, but football waits for no one, apparently.

The dough was light and sort-of reminiscent of a croissant. The top was crusty and the bottom was gooey. This would taste best a little warm and fresh out of the oven with some coffee.

I invited Kate, Meg and Anna over to hang out and bake something elaborate yesterday. I had what I thought was the perfect recipe… except I failed to read the entire thing before we got started. After I realized it would take about 2.5 hours from start to finish and we were all getting hangry, I quickly (and secretly) googled muffin recipes and found this one. And it was a winner.

4. Add dry ingredients to wet and stir until just combined. Divide batter among muffin cups (each about 3/4 full).

5. Stir together topping, tablespoon of sugar and teaspoon of cinnamon. Sprinkle over each muffin.

6. Bake until puffed and golden brown and wooden pick or skewer inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 22-27 minutes.

7. Cool in pan on a rack for 3-4 minutes, then transfer muffins from pan to rack and cool to warm or room temperature.

you will see the other recipe I started in the background, hanging out.

This recipe is so easy I made it from start to finish in about 30 minutes. The muffins are moist and fluffy, with a nice but not too sweet pumpkin flavor. My recipe turned out to fill more than the 12 muffin tins so I made a tiny little loaf of pumpkin muffin-bread. It worked perfectly.

I feel like these might even pass for cupcakes if you put enough frosting on them. In other words, they are delicious.

Stay tuned for that time-consuming, elaborate recipe tomorrow… which turned out to be just as easy. Oops.